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Trip Report - May, 2024 - Failed backpacking trip to Utah Flats and upper Phantom and Haunted Canyons |
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I let this one get away from me. It started off pretty well at the South Kaibab trailead but then some pain in the hips on the way down already had me having second thoughts about it. I managed to fight through that and eventually discovered a problem with the backpack that may have had something to do with the hip problem I had on my Tanner/Beamer trip in October of last year. The rest of the day went well apart from having to dodge scores of very muddy puddles on the trail. There had been a massive wind and rainstorm the day before and the puddles were left over from that and the mud from the mule trains trudging through the puddles. I spent an hour or so eating lunch and hanging out at the ramada near The Tipoff, before finally donning the backpack again and heading over to Cremation Creek for the evening.
I met a nice group of people on the way over to Cremation and we spent a few hours talking before and after dinner. We ended up hiking back to The Tipoff the following morning and then they headed up the South Kaibab trail while I headed down. No problems on that morning either. I arrived at Phantom Ranch and prepared to relax for a couple of hours, waiting until mid-afternoon to start the climn up to Utah Flats. I had some nice views of the route up to Utah Flats on the way down the South Kaibab Trail. And then the temperature started to rise and I started having some anxiety issues. I went over to the Phantom Ranger station a few times in hopes of having them let me stay at Bright Angel Campground for the night so that I could tackle the Utah Flats Route in the cool of the morning rather than the heat of the afternoon. But I could not find a ranger anywhere. A little before 2pm I went over to the campground and walked the length of it to see if there was a ranger around. No such look. The thermometer at the campground was reading 105F and it was baking in the sun. I started to sweat almost immediately as I started up the lower portion of the route and did not go more than 5 minutes before more anxiety overtook me and I bailed out. I just lost it completely and started heading for the river and the Bright Angel Trail, hoping I would have more luck getting a spot for the night at Havasupai Garden. In hindsight (which is always 20-20) I should have just stayed at Bright Angel Campground and waited it out. I did not want to grab a site because I did not have a permit but I could have just sat down near the creek and waited for a ranger to show up. One had to come by in the late afternoon to check permits and they would be unlikely to ask me to leave at that point. I obviously was not thinking clearly. Trying to go from Cremation Creek to Phantom Ranch in the morning and then up to Utah Flats in the afternoon was just a bad idea to start off with but I could not get a permit for Bright Angel Campground. Trip highlights
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